"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

"Earlier today, Adam Yauch, founding member of the Beastie Boys passed away after a three year fight against cancer. Adam was a good friend of mine, and one of my oldest friends in New York. But more than being a friend, he was an inspiration. I am so privileged to have known him.

Adam is well known for his many talents — musician, video director, film-maker, snowboarder and world champion alpen horn blower — but he was as generous as he was creative. It’s well known that Adam cared deeply about seeing a Free and Independent Tibet in his lifetime, and he used every resource available to make this dream a reality. Through his efforts, he raised millions of dollars for the Beasite Boys’ charity the Milarepa Fund, but he also lobbied congress in their DC offices, folded pamphlets and licked envelopes, got arrested at demonstrations at the Chinese Consulate, made food for volunteers, called business leaders and talked to them about human rights — heck, he even slept on the floor of my college dorm room so that he could attend a Students for a Free Tibet conference that I organized at my school (this was a long, long time ago). But for Adam, Tibet was just the beginning. He believed that the act of freeing Tibet would have a ripple effect around the world, and encourage freedom everywhere. Most importantly, he believed that the key to doing this was through non-violence, and that is what so deeply moved him to give so much of his time, energy and talent to supporting the cause.

After 911, New Yorkers were lost, overwhelmed and grieving. Adam was the first person to organize a benefit concert. Rather than focus on the tragedy of what happened, which was too vast for us all to fully comprehend, he titled his event “New Yorkers Against Violence.” Somehow, Adam (and Mike D and Adam Horovitz) knew that the message had to be global, and that it had to address the problem of violence, rather than just be a reaction to the tragedy that was still unfolding in our city. Adam thought big, and he understood that all things are interconnected. He was an old soul, and he clearly lived so passionately, creatively and compassionately, that he exhausted his body at far too young an age.

Although it’s hard to fathom that we won’t see him again, the mark he left on this world will have a lasting legacy. For every musician he encouraged, for every artist he inspired, for every Tibetan he gave hope to, and for every person who shook their rump to his fat bass lines, we pay tribute to MCA. Our deepest condolences go out to his incredible family, and all the friends who he has touched during his time with us. On a personal note, I have to say, Adam, thank you for everything you did for me – all the kind words, generosity, encouragement, leadership, inspiration, and most importantly, the laughs. You played a huge role in making me the person I am today, and I am forever grateful to you.

Now it’s time to honor his life by helping to make his dream come true.

Kurt Langer
Milarepa Fund, 1996-2001
SFT Board of Directors

Contentment is the ultimate wealth;
Detachment is the final happiness. ~Sri Saraha

When I was first getting started in practice (about the time Ill Communication came out) I took inspiration from this. Not because it's particularly good or bad, but because it put the idea in my head that a loudmouth with bad habits and bad manners like me (and as I perceived Yauch to be, at least on Licensed to Ill) could aspire to such a thing as Mahayana. If a guy who had been singing the praises of PCP can at least give it an earnest try and turn his own boat around, then what's holding me back?

So I'm thankful to MC Adam Yauch for the bassline to "Gratitude" and for the example he set in practicing Buddha Dharma.